The Volunteer Fair filled the Hoosier Room on Wednesday, Sept. 9. The event was held to get students to sign up to volunteer at various non-profit organizations located in different communities in the region.
Put on by Career Services and the Volunteer Programs, the Volunteer Fair is held every semester, encouraging students to think outside their school and studies.
Haley Groves, Volunteer Programs coordinator, and Rosie Shannon, internship coordinator, worked together to organize the event. Groves said this year’s turnout was much higher than last year.
“I am very pleased with how this fair is going,” Groves said. “Hopefully it will encourage students to volunteer at a place that really needs them.”
The Hoosier Room was filled with 25 agencies in 27 booths, all trying to recruit students to volunteer with their organization. Agencies with internship opportunities were also there.
“The internships are for junior and senior students, and the internships can be used for credit hours,” Shannon said. “Some of the internships are paid, so that helps with students who are working and going to school.”
Groves said the fair is put together when the school recruits agencies for interns and volunteers. The agencies who respond are put into a database for future reference and used for future events. Most agencies are non-profit.
One of the agencies at the fair was Floyd Memorial Hospital. Karen Langdon, Volunteer Services manager, was on hand to answer questions about volunteering in the local hospital.
“We have many ways students can volunteer,” Langdon said. “If they are comfortable, they can work with the patient’s care, assisting them if they need it, or just visiting with them. Students can also volunteer to work with the families of the patients or help the faculty.”
Langdon said volunteers are needed for driving the hospital shuttle as long as the person is above the age of 21, or helping in the kitchen.
Big Brothers Big Sisters was another agency recruiting volunteers. They had two programs available.
One was a program where the volunteer would visit the child at their school and spend one hour a week with them, playing games or helping them with their homework,
The other program is a community program. This involves a volunteer picking the child up from their home and taking them out to do something, usually two to three times a month.
Alicia Hurle, enrollment specialist at Big Brothers Big Sisters, said they are looking for volunteers for both programs.
“As long as the volunteer is above the age of 18, they are welcome to be involved in either program,” Hurle said.
Similar to Big Brothers Big Sisters is The Boys and Girls Club of Harrison County. Ryan Gelhaus, the program’s director, was representing the agency.
“We are currently understaffed, so we are looking for anyone willing to come out and just play with kids,” Gelhaus said. “We have a gym, rock wall, basketball courts, games, so there is a lot to do. We want to give the kids a safe place to have fun.”
VistaCare, a hospice provider, and Brooklawn, a residential treatment center for children, were other agencies at the fair.
Cheryl Oliver, volunteer for the YMCA in Harrison County, said she thinks her agency would be the best to volunteer at because of their flexibility.
“We mold our needs to our volunteers,” Oliver said.
“The volunteers can essentially do whatever they would like to help with,” she said. “If they want to clean the gym equipment, they can. If they like kids, we put them in our playroom. We don’t give out specific jobs. We just appreciate whatever the volunteer would like to do.”
By LINDSAY VEITZ
Staff writer
lkveitz@ius.edu
